Speech #980239546

Young Jews are denied admission to public universities because of their faith. others are denied jobs and stripped of their academic degrees. All Jews in the Soviet Union are victims of the escalating antiSemitic campaign by the Soviet Government which incorporates virulent propaganda into many areas of official and public media. Most disturbing of all. practically every Jew who requests permission to emigrate to Israel or to the United States is refused a visa. Those who apply for visas risk losing their jobs. their social status. their civil rights. their communication with the outside world and their hopes of living in a world free of persecution. On this ninth anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act. I reiterate my personal concern over the plight of Soviet Jews and the merciless restriction of their emigration. In spite of the commitments it undertook in Helsinki. the Soviet Union has now closed and almost locked the gates of Jewish emigration. The number of Soviet Jews permitted exit visas has plummeted from a peak of more than 51.000 in 1979 to a projected total of fewer than 1.000 in 1984. This current Soviet policy leaves thousands of Jews trapped in a repressive country. outcasts in their own society and unable to enjoy basic human rights. Many refuseniks first applied for exit visas before the signing of the Helsinki accord and they are still waiting today for permission to emigrate. The Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry this week issued a list of 166 such families. many of whom have been waiting up to 15 years. These people are being denied the most basic human rights and many of them are serving jail or prison terms. In a recent development. Sakhar Zunshain of Riga. was tried and sentenced in July for pursuing a legal course of action. He was jailed because he made formal. legal appeals to the authorities for permission to emigrate to Israel and then protested the refusal. Iosif Begun. Ida Nudel.